Diverging Paths
by Shadwoot
Summary: I posted this story under a differant name a few years back. Decided to touch it up and will finish it this time. Written from a Zergling's perspective for now. Will later be told throguh the eyes of others.
1. Default Chapter

The sky of Barlosis turned black. The swarms of zerg loomed like a great shadow over the Confederate city. The innocents fled, but running from the swarm would gain no more than if you were running from your own shadow. The rich would find a way out, catch a ride on a battle cruiser or KelMorine mineral transport. Normal citizens never had a chance, they could only put their hope in their cities moderate defenses. The confederate missile turrets quickly ran out of ammo, constantly having a target to aim at until they themselves became the targets. A force of guardians warped in, after that a force of ultralisks, hydralisks, anything Char had on its red surface worked to turn Barlosis into Chars likeness. Defilers, mutalisks, and then....the zerglings. They were my zergling. I now say "they were my" because it wasn't me, there was no me. The panicked screams of the terrens meant nothing at all to me. I grabbed a firebat by the leg with a long claw, I would have been toast for a move like that, if it were not for another hydralisk. I ran, short legs sending dust into the Barlosis air. Claws propelled me toward a brave marine, trying to save a wounded friend. I would have felt guilty for killing someone who was only helping a wounded man, if such a thing had ever existed in my small mind like guilt. His rifle turned towards me, my arm moved too quickly for him to pull a trigger. He fell back. Minus one arm. He pulled out a small sidearm, bullets ripping through my body. This meant nothing to me. I leaped onto him and smeared myself with his blood. A second marine, I stabbed into his arm with one sharp claw, lifted him off his feet and tossed him over my shoulder. Another terran flew at me with nothing but a knife, he slashed my chest. I fell, but as you can imagine a marine with only a knife wouldn't be alive long enough to kill a fly. Another marine, I stabbed wildly at him with my claws, I slashed at him with my tail. I bit him with my impossibly large teeth. I finished him off with my legs. The Overmind stabbed at him with my claws Zhaz slashed at him with my tail Daggoth bit at him with my teeth And Kerrigan finished him off And because they were doing this through my body, my brain said that I loved it, that I loved having my enemies blood run down my mouth, I loved to kill is what they put into my mind. I lay there, regenerating not worrying about nearly being trampled by ultralisks. They repeated this process with the shell that was I many times. Run Kill Be wounded Regenerate ......Die? I can not be sure how many times this process was repeated, my memory didn't't last much more then a week unless a cerebrate wanted it to be so. I would soon be free to decide what to remember and try to forget on my own  
  
Kerrigan looked down from her half living transport onto the carnage below. She watched with great interest, it was her job to decide who would receive new evolutions. She felt it was her decision, but it truly was not. Few decisions were hers, but because of the Overmind's lies and misinformation, she believed that the core all zergs were free. The Overmind gave her more freedom than any cerebrate, or other minion , of coarse, but still what she did was done in his name. However, since her mind was twisted in the chrysalis she believed Murder, Death, and Destruction were the ultimate freedoms. She spotted an ultralisk, running through the mineral fields of Barlosis, A long kaiser blade digging into a siege tank, the other with a mighty swipe sending three SCVs flying through the air. The siege tanks shells shot into the ultralisk, sending chunks of it feet away. Kerrigan saw this as bravery. It was actually nothing, nothing at all. The siege tank was torn apart by a zergling. I know it sounds farfetched, a zergling destroying a tank, but it was occupied with the ultralisk and I hit the perfect spots. I tore into the area above its treads, a thin layer of steel was the only thing that separated me from the cockpit above the treads. The tank driver heard a hiss, and felt a drop of drool on his leg, he never saw what was drooling behind him. slash cut bite blood death The Overmind told me that I was happy It is amazing to think of what my brethren and me were capable of if we could retain knowledge gained from battle. The swarm used numbers and order as their strengths, not experience as the humans did. Kerrigan saw what I had done, and decided I disserved the evolutions. Thank God my Cerebrate told me to attack that tank as she watched. It was among the worst mistakes he ever made. 


	2. The Descent

Creep oozed under and over the human buildings, breaking them down into simple proteins and sugars to keep the hive cluster growing. Most of the zerg invasion force was posted at different locations to await the inevitable counter-attack. Others were sent to look for survivors. And even fewer of us were called to the hive, the very heart of the cluster. Several hatcheries were standing, and even more were being mutated, around the central hive. A few ultralisks and hydralisks stood there, only one zergling was there. Me.  
We were all loaded inside the skin tissue of the overlords, and we did not know where we were headed. We didn't care. I noticed the air getting thinner; this was because we were going into space. We didn't care. A large human space platform covered in creep, spore colonies, a few scattered hatcheries, many spires, and one hive loomed before us. The overlords landed and we crawled out of them. We were beckoned to move toward the hive. Few zerg ground units were around us, however countless overlords loaded with drones moved quickly towards the planet surface. If Kerrigan had chosen to create more mutalisks for defense, perhaps we could have repelled the Protoss warships. However, the Overmind was granting Kerrigan her own control now, it was her fault, not the Overmind's. We moved quickly through the halls and tunnels of the hive till we reached a large room in the center. In that room was Kerrigan to the left, Daggoth in the middle, and Nargil to the right. Kerrigan began to speak about evolution and what we have done whenever we heard the first warships.  
An electric humming was heard distantly, and a high pitched screech that we later realized were the screams of mutalisks dieing. Daggoth quickly called up a picture on the screen in the middle of the room. He saw carriers and scouts blasting waves of mutalisks as soon as they came. Nargil ordered all of the hatcheries to spawn scourges. The space platform moved toward the protoss, spore colonies firing acid spores at them from all angles, but it was useless. Kerrigan realized it was time to retreat whenever a scout slammed into the hive and its nose stuck into the room they were in. Kerrigan ordered the platform to move out of the area and a mix of the human engines and zerg biological engines moves the platform away from the area as fast as it would move. It was not fast enough.  
The Judicator ordered the nuclear missiles to be launched. I have only recently been freed, so I have yet to regain all my memory. But I remember a bright flash, and in an instant all of the purple creep turned a sick dark red color and then I remember the blast wave hitting a spire, then the explosion bean to ebb, leavening half the stricture standing and the rest of it nearly disintegrated. The rest is very hazy, but I can still barely remember how we survived that nuclear fire.  
Kerrigan, still young in her infestation and retaining some human traits, wanted to help who she could. The Cerebrates, jealous of the special treatment Kerrigan received, escaped without her on the special overlord for escapes. A second bomb was dropped, bionic zerg and engineered human material giving way to the explosion. Large sections of the space station came loose, plummeting down towards the surface of Barlosis.  
The Queen of blades ordered us all to follow her as she ran from the exploding zerg structures, chunks of wet meat flying into the air with every protoss missile. A handful of zerg including myself followed after our queen without question. A protoss scout notes us and locked on, his training telling him to go for the larder targets first. Scout bullet ripped into the flesh of the Ultralisk behind me, chunks of its flesh being splattered onto myself and the Queen. She commanded the hydralisks to hold the Scout to cover her escape. It was now only her and I running from the protoss, who besides that one scout did not notice Kerrigan. We ran as fast as our enhanced legs would carry us. When we reached the end of the infested terran space platform, She stopped to give me a break I did not need or appreciate. The pang of Scout bullets mixed with the screaming of dieing hydralisks was heard behind us. Soon, the scout was back on our tail. The protoss fighter ship was badly damaged, it could be seen as blue fire erupted from its sides. The pilot was on a suicide run, and I now realize these protoss were as much slaves as I was. Blinded by their own pride and the strict moral code of their society, they lacked free will almost as much as I used to. We were both victims of twisted control, only theirs was not so direct. It all happened in an instant, and as quickly as it started in a wash of blue fire and explosions it was over with.  
An Impact. The missile payload was released from the Jet into the platform in front of us. Kerrigan scrambled to safety, her quick thinking making it obvious why she was chosen as an agent of the swarm. Only seconds later the scout collided into the floor of the platform, and it was far more stress than this platform was built to handle and after a great creaking the floor cracked, and the gravity of Barlosis pulled us down, down, down towards our deaths. Kerrigan burrowed and I did the same. I could feel her emotions inside of my small mind, and I knew that what she felt was fear but also relief. The human part still left inside her wished for death, for freedom. I didn't realize it then, but the deepest part of me felt the same feelings. 


End file.
